Heart Healthy Diet Guidelines

You should note that this diet is to be followed regularly and as long as you can (in short, forever), if you wish to prevent heart diseases. This is not a fad diet and hence, is easy and comfortable to follow. Before taking a look at the actual diet plan, you should go through the following guidelines that will help you understand the diet plan.

• If you wish to know how to keep your heart healthy, then note that keeping a watch on your calorie intake is the most important thing that you need to follow. You should get your calorie intake calculated (based on age, gender and activity level) and strictly consume only those many calories everyday.
• The total fat intake (inclusive of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats) should be less than 30 percent everyday. This means that nearly all the fatty foods should be avoided.
• As sodium is one of the factors leading to heart diseases, it should be avoided as much as possible. The daily intake of sodium should be no more than 3000 milligrams everyday. It is necessary to let go for salted foods completely.
• Lastly, cholesterol, another reason for heart diseases, should also be avoided from the diet. Foods like cheese, deep-fried foods, organ meats, egg yolk and most of the processed foods, contain high amounts of cholesterol and hence, should be avoided.

Heart Healthy Diet Plan

Now that you know what are the guidelines to be followed for prevention of heart disease, let us take a look at the heart healthy diet menu. The following is the list of foods that you can safely consume when following this diet.

• All vegetables except potatoes, sweet potatoes and yams
• All fruits (preferably fresh and cut)
• Soybeans, soy products, tofu; beans and legumes
• Whole grains, oatmeal, whole wheat
• Fish, oily fish, fish oil, lean fish
• Lean chicken, skinless poultry, egg white
• Fat free dairy products, skimmed milk, yogurt
• Olive oil, canola oil

In the heart healthy diet, you can plan your daily meals by choosing any of the above-mentioned foods. Most of the unhealthy foods can be substituted with healthy foodstuffs and hence, it will be easy for you to follow the diet. For e.g., take a look at the following list of unhealthy foods which can be substituted for healthy options:

• Cheese pizza ~ vegetable pizza on wheat base
• Fried chicken ~ skinless boiled chicken
• Ice cream ~ frozen flavored yogurt
• Whole egg omelet with cheese ~ egg white omelet on wheat bread
• Cream based sauces ~ homemade fresh sauce (without salt or preservatives)
• Alcohol, coffee, tea ~ herbal tea, green tea, freshly made frozen fruit drinks

You can go through healthy heart: diet and recipes for more information. Apart from following the above-mentioned diet, you also need to exercise regularly for reversing heart disease. At the same time, reducing stress, reducing the intake of alcohol, avoiding smoking cigarette, etc. also contribute in prevention of heart diseases.

These were the guidelines and the menu plan for the heart healthy diet. Lastly, note that along with diet and lifestyle, a regular health checkup will also be helpful in keeping heart diseases at bay. So, wait no more; but get going. Take care!